


Along Came a Specter

by benvoliotheorphan



Category: Danny Phantom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Crossover, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, this is old and unfinished
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23209333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benvoliotheorphan/pseuds/benvoliotheorphan
Summary: Peter is on a normal patrol when he suddenly runs into a brand new hero who can somehow fly through walls.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Peter Parker
Comments: 13
Kudos: 296





	Along Came a Specter

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this about... two years ago? Not long after Infinity War came out. And I had intended it to be much, much longer, covering multiple encounters between Danny and Peter when Danny was dragged to New York on a family vacation. 
> 
> I ran out of steam pretty fast after writing out their first meeting. Whoops.
> 
> I found it again recently and liked how this first part stood on its own. So I decided to go ahead and post it. Maybe one day I'll write more, but knowing me probably not.
> 
> For MCU, this takes place vaguely sometime between Homecoming and Infinity War. For Danny Phantom, the first two seasons happened but none of season 3. Also, is kind of a modern au?? If it counts as that. Just imagine Danny Phantom takes place in 2016/2017-ish instead of 2004 lol

The night had started normal enough. Peter had just finished doing the dishes, told Aunt May goodnight (a somewhat pointless endeavor, for she never went to bed until after he returned from patrol), and then he was off for one last round of patrolling the city as Spider-Man. Nothing was extremely out of the ordinary; a few muggings, a couple of carjackers, someone attempting to rob a convenient store – all issues he had dealt with more times than he could count since becoming a superhero. Easy enough to resolve, all done without incident. It wasn’t until the night drew to a close at his newly established curfew of 11 p.m. before anything really interesting happened.

He could see the smoke from several blocks away and quietly cursed. “Aunt May is gonna be so mad,” he muttered as he began swinging towards the fire as quickly as he could.

“Would you like me to send her a text explaining how you’ll be late?” Karen asked, to which Peter quickly confirmed. It would likely make Aunt May worry more, but it was better than leaving her in radio silence so her imagination could jump to the worst possible scenarios.

She’d understand once he explained everything to her. She usually did, at least.

Peter reached the burning building in what had to have been record time (and he made a mental note to check his speed with Karen about that once he got back home), only to be surprised to see another hero already there, flying in and out of the building in a blur of black and white, carrying at least two people each time they exited the building.

They were also somehow flying _through_ the walls.

“What the hell...” Peter muttered, gaping at the sight. The only other person he had ever seen walk through walls was Vision, and he was an _extremely_ special case. So how could...? Peter quickly shook his head. “Focus, Spider-Man! Karen, how many people are left in the building?”

He watched as the suit’s AI scanned the building, pulling up a recreation on the screen inside his mask with various spots showing up on various floors to indicate the remaining citizens trapped inside. Peter watched as another dot, more faded than the rest, zoomed through to the person on the highest floor, and then suddenly both dots blipped out of existence before reappearing by the next person one floor below. They then flew towards a wall, disappearing from the screen right before they hit it. Peter quickly gave the command to get rid of the diagram, just in time to see the hero fly through the wall with a person in each arm, all of them... translucent. Heck, if Peter wasn’t wearing his mask, he doubted he'd be able to see them at all.

He watched in fascination as the trio became solid again and the hero gently dropped them to the ground, handing the people they saved off to the paramedics. And then they were back to the building and Peter quickly followed – the job was almost done, sure, but it couldn’t hurt to help, right? He had Karen bring back up the location of the remaining people inside and swung in through an open window.

Peter lost track of the time as he maneuvered through the burning building, grabbing someone who was trapped in the flames and then leading them back out to safety. He wasn’t as fast as the mysterious new hero, as he couldn’t walk through freaking walls, but he did have the advantage of Karen guiding him through the smoke to the survivors. Soon enough everyone was free, Peter carrying the last person, a little boy, to the paramedics. Once his arms were free, Peter looked around for the hero, eager to introduce himself.

“Karen, where’s our penguin friend?” he muttered right before his sharp hearing, enhanced even more so by the suit, picked up the sounds of something crashing and a loud shout coming from within the building.

He spun around, already rushing forward to head back inside even as Karen answered his question, “It seems he’s still inside the building.” Her voice was as calm and collected as ever, as if she didn’t just confirm that someone could be seriously injured inside a _burning building_. Peter had to bite back a snarky remark to hide his inner panic because, yeah, of course the hero was still inside; he kind of already figured that out himself. But being rude to Karen just felt sort of... wrong. And not to mention was extremely unnecessary given the circumstance.

He was just about to shoot his web to the open window once again, eager to jump inside and help, when a black and white figure suddenly flew through the roof of the burning building. They flew high in the air, still loudly cursing as they cradled their arm, before landing on the roof of another building nearby. Peter sighed in relief, glad to know the guy didn’t die before Peter could introduce himself – New York seemed to be filled to the brim with heroes and Peter was pretty much determined to meet them all. And, also, someone dying on the job, after saving so many people? That really did not sit well with Peter.

He already had enough nightmares about the people he couldn’t save; he _really_ didn’t want to add to the list.

With one last glance to make sure the first responders had the situation under control – which, thankfully, they did – Peter took off after the strange new hero.

Peter reached the roof to see the new guy standing at the center, back turned towards him. Peter was cautious as he made his approach, keeping his pace slow as to not startle the hero. He noticed once he was closer to the stranger that the guy was short, at least a little shorter than Peter, with a lean build that was similar to his own. The hero also seemed to just... _glow_. It was subtle, probably wouldn’t have been noticeable if they were in daylight, but in the darkness of night his illumination was unmistakable.

Just what was he?

“Ah, man,” the guy grumbled as Peter drew closer. That voice sounded young, as though it belonged in the crowded chatters of Midtown High or any other high school. “Jazz is going to kill me. Again.”

Peter could feel his heartbeat pick up as realization began to dawn on him. It couldn’t be... was this hero his age? That was both an exciting and horrifying idea. It was exciting because Peter was used to being the youngest, the baby in the group of experienced and well-trained heroes. Having someone his age he could talk to, someone he could relate all the issues of balancing being a high-schooler with the stress of hero work...

But, even though having superpowers and hanging out with the Avengers was probably the coolest thing ever, it was dangerous. And not everybody had super strength and a healing factor to protect them from getting beat up by supervillains. Heck, sometimes not even that was enough.

This guy could fly through walls, sure, but that could only do so much to protect someone, as evidenced by the way he was cradling his left arm.

Speaking of which– “You alright?” Peter called out, causing the hero in front of him to jump a bit. “Sounded like you got hurt pretty badly.” He probably needed to have his arm looked at if it was injured. Although, considering the guy opted to just fly away than get help from the paramedics... “I can go grab a first aid kit if you want?” They weren’t that far from Peter’s home, and he was sure Aunt May wouldn’t be opposed to him helping.

The hero’s shoulders slumped as he sighed. “Nah, it’s cool. I just wasn’t paying attention and a piece of the ceiling fell on me, but it should heal itself by morning.” He turned, and Peter felt his breath catching in his throat as the brightest pair of toxic green eyes fell on him. God, if he thought it was weird how the rest of the hero glowed, it had nothing on his eyes, which were _bright_. It was like they were made of the same liquid that was inside those green glow sticks.

Said eyes were wide, and the hero’s jaw was hanging open in amazement. It was an expression Peter had seen several times directed at him from children and young adults alike, and one he had worn on several occasions since being pulled into the larger world of superheroes.

Starstruck wonder.

Although, Peter had never had another hero look at him like that before. But he had also never met a hero who was so close to his age before. Because this guy’s face was as young as everything else about him suggested. If it weren’t for the glowing... everything and the bright white hair, Peter would think he was just another teenager.

He gave a nervous laugh, suddenly unsure how he felt about the situation. “Ah, got the whole healing factor thing going on, huh? Yeah, that power can be pretty useful.”

That seemed to be enough to snap the hero out of his trance. He shook his head, although it did little to suppress his awed expression. “No way... you’re Spider-Man!” He closed the gap between them, right-hand letting go of his left arm to offer to Peter for a handshake. “Holy crap, it’s... I’m a big fan!”

Peter might’ve been uncertain about the whole situation, but he wasn’t about to be rude. He took the offered hand and shook it (and jesus, this dude was _cold_. Even with both their hands covered with gloves, the coolness still just seeped right through), offering a smile that he realized too late couldn’t be seen. “Yup, that’s me! It’s nice to meet you, uh...” His brow furrowed. “Well, what’s your name?”

“Phantom! Danny Phantom.”

They pulled apart and Phantom’s hand was back to holding his injured arm, although that was about all the attention he gave it.

Peter’s mouth went dry. “Phantom, huh? You like a ghost or something?”

“Or something, yeah.” And oh, wasn’t _that_ vague and foreboding.

Peter didn’t want to dwell on the idea that he was talking to a dead teen, however. That freakout was to be saved for later, because dead or not, Danny did just save pretty much an entire building’s worth of people from burning to death. So Peter crossed his arms and tried to puff himself up to be worthy of the awed look still being sent his way, and said, “Well, Phantom, that was pretty amazing what you did back there!”

Phantom’s face lit up with a pale green and it took Peter a second to realize he was blushing. Phantom’s blush was _green_. “Thanks, man.” He then shrugged and his eyes drifted more towards the ground. “Although you helped quite a bit too-“

“Nah,” Peter cut in, “you already saved most of them before I arrived! Most of the credit goes to you and your awesome powers.”

Phantom’s head snapped back up, eyes wider than before and his blush even brighter. The guy could pass for a nightlight with the way his face shone. “Spider-Man thinks my powers are awesome,” he whispered so quietly and quickly that, had Peter been a normal human, he wouldn’t have been able to hear it. Peter resisted the urge to react to the words, although he couldn’t stop his head from tilting and his posture deflating.

Was this how he made the other Avengers feel when he first met them? Or was it just off because he had never experienced something like this before? Hard to say, honestly.

Either way, everything about the situation was just... weird. So, so weird.

Before he could ponder the situation further, a ping rang inside his mask, causing Peter to jump. “You got a text from Aunt May,” Karen said, bringing the message up for him to see. “She’s asking if you’re ok and if you’ll be home soon.” And it was then that Peter looked at the time and realized it was 12:30.

“Ah, shit,” Peter cursed, startling Phantom. “It’s way past curfew, I need to go!” He offered Phantom a quick wave as he began to run backwards towards the edge of the roof. “It was nice meeting you, Danny Phantom! Thanks again for saving the day!”

He caught a glimpse of Phantom’s bemused expression and small wave before Peter turned and jumped off the ledge, quickly swinging back home. It took him about ten minutes to reach his apartment and he wasted little time crawling through his bedroom window and changing out of his suit.

Once he was in his pajamas, Peter walked out to the living room where he was instantly scooped up into Aunt May’s arms. “Oh, thank goodness!” she cried as she squeezed him tightly before backing off, eyes quickly scanning every inch of him for injuries. “You smell like smoke. What happened?”

“I was heading home when I noticed a burning building,” Peter answered with a nonchalant shrug. “I couldn’t just let people burn.”

May sighed and shook her head before cupping his cheeks and placing a kiss on his forehead. “Oh, of course not. I just...” She heaved a sigh and pulled him back into a tight hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Peter closed his eyes as he hugged her back, guilt twisting in his gut for making her worry so. “Everyone was saved from the building with no issues, but there was–” And here he cut himself off as he wondered if telling May about Phantom was a good idea. How he could even describe the new hero?

May released him from the hug and took several steps back to meet his eyes. “There was what?” Her arms were crossed and her eyes narrowed, and he knew there was no way he’d be going to bed now until he told her. Peter had promised not to keep any major secrets from her after she found out about Spider-Man, and May was not about to let him forget it.

“I met a new hero,” he confessed, noting how May’s stance instantly relaxed at his answer. “He had already saved most of everyone by the time I had arrived.”

“Well, that’s good. Maybe he could help take some of the load off your shoulders.”

Peter hummed as the image of the glowing, probably ghost of a dead teenager, hero flashed through his mind. “Maybe.”


End file.
